Team and Spirit

Lake Sevan, Armenia, 2012

Although Wyn River is in many ways a virtual firm, there are a number of key associates and affiliated firms who have worked together in the past and bring years of regional experience to our clients. This is where our firm gets real! Read about the background of some of our associates here.

Our associates have a wide variety of multidisciplinary backgrounds: corporate financiers, project managers, former CEOs and CFOs, utility managers and engineers, former commercial and international financial institution bankers, former public sector officials, turnaround, trade and business development specialists.

Our combined broad network of contacts, plus our access to traditional and alternative finance, means we can cover many countries, sectors and scenarios. As we know and trust each other well, there is a true “spirit” in our network which benefits our clients. That same spirit exists between Wyn River associates and the large pool of third party specialists we call upon as needed to meet the needs of our clients. Full CVs of Wyn River associates are provided to prospective clients before any introductory meeting.

You can access short profiles of our associates and key members of our associated firms either by selecting a country or industry sector in the search box below ortype the associate name if you know it:

Or simply type the name of the associate

Our email and phone contact details are shown in the Contacts section. If you cannot find a team member that exactly matches your requirements, please contact nigel.davies@wynriver.com who will use the Wyn River network to find a suitable adviser for you very quickly.

Nigel Davies, Managing Director and founder of Wyn River Limited

The founder of Wyn River Limited is Nigel Davies, a chartered accountant, restructuring and finance adviser. Nigel Davies has over 30 years of experience of professional services coordination and delivery across four continents. He has led or project managed numerous restructuring, privatisation, project finance and structural reform projects. From 1994, he spent 8 years living and working in various countries in Central and South East Europe, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine while with Deloitte UK and Deloitte Central Europe. Having recognised a gap in the market, he formed Wyn River together with a number of colleagues at the beginning of 2013.

In July 2016, Nigel won a mandate to support the newly formed Special Operations Unit of the African Development Bank. Nigel is currently based in the Ivory Coast and works on a number of underperforming loans, investments and other private sector infrastructure and energy projects across the continent of Africa.

His UK career started with the traditional audit route but he soon transferred to Deloitte UK’s restructuring and insolvency department. Nigel spent a year on secondment in Toronto before working on a series of viability, restructuring and sector reform projects across CEE/CIS. In 1996 he moved to Deloitte Poland and in 1998 transferred to Deloitte Bulgaria to establish a new corporate finance department. In 2001 he moved with his family to Amsterdam to set up a new restructuring function for Deloitte Netherlands. Later, after freelancing on two infrastructure projects in the Balkans, he returned to the UK to spend five years improving and deepening cross-border cooperation for the member firms of Grant Thornton International, primarily in the areas of restructuring and forensic accounting. Following the global financial crisis in 2008, Nigel developed a new initiative at Grant Thornton International to focus on restructuring and municipal infrastructure opportunities in his former geography of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In 2013 he founded Wyn River Limited. Nigel has close links to both Insol Europe and the Turnaround Management Association which he has built over the past 15 years. He is also the head of the infrastructure focus group of the British Croatian Business Club (www.bcbc.org.uk)

Gavin Ryan, Wyn River associate, Austria

Gavin Ryan is a Wyn River associate, currently based in Austria, with over 25 years’ experience in equity investments, of which the last 15 as a private equity fund manager dedicated to emerging markets. The private equity investments he has managed have generated an average return of over 40%, putting him in the top quartile of fund managers. The deal sizes have been in the range of $2-20m; and have mainly focused on growth and infrastructure investments.

He has experience of private equity investments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Gavin was Managing Director of Clean Economic Energy AG, a renewable energy asset manager with €2.5bn under management; where he was responsible for fundraising and the Middle East and African markets; and directed the work of an investment team of 15 people.

Formerly, he was Managing Director of a $200m growth fund for Soros Fund Management and the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The fund focussed on South Eastern Europe and invested in financial services, telecoms, cable TV, breweries. The fund was extremely successful and was involved in several landmark PE transactions in the country.

Prior to that, he was Director of an Advent International $30m Croatia country fund; which counted among its investors the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation and major European banking groups.

He has also served as an Advisor and Trainer to emerging markets PE funds and Limited Partners, including Commonwealth Development Corporation, Brunei Investment Authority, African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (a UN Agency), African Capital Alliance and the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission; where he specialised in the assessment and strengthening of private equity management teams in emerging markets; and in techniques for managing a private equity portfolio. He is the in-house instructor of the foundation private equity course at the banking academy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

He served on the Board of Directors of several of the portfolio companies in which his funds invested, including a national TelCo, a cable TV company and banks.

His previous professional experience includes HSBC Investment Bank, Unicredit Group (Austria), the British Foreign Office, Nomura International and Price Waterhouse. He has MA in Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA from McGill University. He speaks fluently English, French, Italian, Romanian and Serbo-Croatian; and intermediate German and Russian.

Gavin worked alongside Nigel Davies on the successful privatisation of Expressbank in Bulgaria which was sold to Societe Generale in 1998. Gavin’s wide experience as an advisor and investor across both Eastern Europe and Africa is made available to Wyn River’s clients on specific corporate, agribusiness and renewable transactions, as a Non-Executive Director and as a leading trainer on banking and private equity programmes.

Mila Korugic, Wyn River associate, Serbia

Mila Korugic Milosevic is a well networked, experienced professional, with many years working within Deloite as a Director on a variety of advisory projects as well as time within private industry in international trade and banking.

Mila is an Economics graduate and started her career within Serbia’s renowned "Ekonomski Institut" in 1980 where she worked on many of the initial large privatisations in the country. She then became the finance manager of a trading entity before joining Deloitte Serbia in 1995 where she led many important state and commercial assignments for ten years. After Deloitte she joined Piraeus Bank to implement an organisational improvement programme and later became chief economic adviser to the board. In 2015, Mila was appointed as an independent member of the Supervisory Board of Komercijalna Banka, one of Serbia's largest banks.

Mila has worked with Nigel Davies closely on a number of assignments in Serbia over the past 15 years, including both the pre-privatisation study of Serbia's electricity industry and the formation of Serbia's Municipal Infrastructure Agency.

Hugo Green, Wyn River associate, Slovak Republic

Hugo Green is a highly experienced chartered accountant, restructuring, infrastructure and sector reform consultant who has lived in Bratislava, Slovak Republic since 1994. He has worked extensively across Central, South and Eastern Europe on a number of commercial and International Financial Institution backed projects which often challenge the existing approach to new financing concepts.

Hugo’s early career included several landmark insolvency projects while with Deloitte UK. He spent time on secondment to the problem loan department of a large UK bank which gave him insight into credit policy, early warning systems and improvement versus enforcement options. This included standstill structures for large multi-banked distressed situations.

In Central and Eastern Europe, Hugo has led a number of key sector reform projects on behalf of the EU and the World Bank. These include several insolvency, privatisation and railway infrastructure projects across South East Europe. Hugo currently holds a CFO position for a Slovak company as well as running his own consultancy which provides turnaround and debt structuring advise to his clients. Hugo has agreed to share his experience with our colleagues and give high-level support to our Slovak clients.

Hugo and Nigel used to share an office when they worked at Deloitte UK and have often worked together on Eastern European projects in the past. Hugo has worked with Krassin Dimitrov on several projects in Serbia and Kosovo in the past. Krassin withdrew from Wyn River during 2013 to take up a Deputy Minister of Economy position in the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Friedhelm Schultz, Wyn River associate, Germany

Friedhelm Schultz is a key member of Wyn River’s food and agribusiness sector team.

Friedhelm has deep experience of the poultry and food processing industry, as well as catering and restaurant franchising concepts. He gained much of his experience from 12 years with sales and managing director roles with Wiesenhof and other group companies in Germany, one of the biggest family businesses in the poultry sector. His role there included the design, implementation and development of national and international sales concepts, the opening of new markets, both in terms of Central Europe and new products. Friedhelm has also set up a franchise in the catering industry.

Friedhelm has been operating as an interim executive for the past two years. Friedhelm was engaged on a food processing turnaround assignment for Wyn River in South East Europe in 2013. Friedhelm is currently serving as strategic sourcer in Europe for retail assets for a major downstream petroleum company. He is successfully saving his client substantial amounts by adopting highly efficient procurement process for capital items such as Car Wash facilities, CCTV, Retail Shop Equipment and Restaurant Equipment. This experience of large scale procurement can also benefit Wyn River's clients.

Wayne Evans, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Wayne has spent almost 30 years involved in 19 turnarounds, across 13 different industries; all debtor-led. During his career, Wayne has been the Group Finance Director of a fully-listed plc, has worked with 10 private equity houses and has been involved in a successful MBO as an equity owner. These days, Wayne tends to concentrate on the front-end crisis stabilisation, cash management and cost reduction processes: steering senior management through the short-term liquidity issues and the preparation of robust turnaround plans and forecasts, mainly as interim Chief Financial Officer. He has significant international experience having worked and lived in the USA, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Belgium. During 10 years in the Japanese automotive industry, Wayne also spent a total of over 6 months in Japan, learning at first-hand the Japanese cost reduction, inventory reduction and continuous improvement techniques. Wayne is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (national prize-winner), a member of the Institute for Turnaround, has an MBA from Manchester Business School and took a first in mathematics at the Imperial College, London

Wayne worked on an important food processing turnaround in South East Europe with Wyn River in 2013, alongside Friedhelm Schultz, where together they drew up a status position and improvement map in a matter of weeks. Wayne coached the existing finance team to improve significantly their in-house liquidity and cost management skills.

Gojart Smaja, Wyn River associate, Albania

Gojart Smaja until recently held the position of Chief of Cabinet for the Ministry of Urban Development and Tourism of Albania, a newly established Ministry tasked with developing an integrated solution for the country’s sustainable urban and tourism sectors. He came into that position after 14 years of extensive and successful experience with international institutions in Albania. He served for 11 years as Consular Officer for the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania followed by 2 years contracted by the Netherlands Senior Experts Network to helping SMEs, professional organisations and municipalities to access high profile Dutch sector experts. Before starting his long association with the Dutch, he worked for two years for the Austrian-German JV hotel project “Rogner Hotel Europapark & Dorint”. Mr Smaja has extensive experience in communicating directly with various levels of local and international institutions – governments, municipalities, international partners and the donor organisations. He graduated from the University of Tirana.

Within Wyn River, Gojart acts as a coordinator for local corporate finance and restructuring assignments and supports our project finance and investment projects across the municipal sector.

Berat, Albania, 2013

Richard Mort, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Richard started his career in KPMG UK’s audit team before moving to United Utilities, one of the UK’s largest water and wastewater businesses.

Within United Utilities (UU) Richard worked within a number of functions and on a number of distinct projects. In the early years at UU he worked in the finance and customer departments and had experience of tariff calculation and modelling for the business. In 2000 Richard moved to UU International and worked on a number of water and wastewater PPP/PFI projects both in the UK and overseas. These included a period of time as CFO of Sofia Water and also senior involvement in water and wastewater projects in Estonia, Poland, Central Asia and the Philippines.

In 2009 Richard moved to Grant Thornton and was responsible for delivering municipal waste projects in the UK, Poland and Greece. During this period Richard operated on both the buy side, assisting contractors in bidding for waste projects, and on the sell side leading municipalities in the negotiation of commercial arrangements for the delivery of waste schemes and offtake contracts. At Grant Thornton, Richard worked closely with Nigel Davies on cross-border origination of project finance opportunities.

Within Wyn River Richard concentrates on the development, financing and procurement of projects in the utilities, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Mārtiņš Zutis, Wyn River associate, Latvia

Martins is Wyn River’s associate in Latvia.

Since May 2014, Martins has led Fresh and More, a start-up company operating in the foodservice distribution sector, as combined CEO and CFO. His contributions include the establishment of business processes, contracting with suppliers, hiring a management team and successfully raising finance.

Martins is a dual qualified UK ACCA accountant and US Internal Auditor. After graduating in Economics from Riga Aviation University in 1999, he worked for two Big 4 firms on a variety of Financial Institution audits and transaction due diligence assignments across the Baltics and Russia. He left Deloitte from his position as head of Financial Advisory services in May 2009 to take on a new role with DNB in Latvia as head of the financial restructuring department. In this position he helped to build and train a team to assess the severity of borrower positions while looking for upside potential for both the bank and the customer. In 2012, Martins took on the role of Chief Restructuring Officer of Bitateks/Cita Santehnika, a bathroom, furniture and household goods retailer, where he focused on margin and cash flow improvements, strengthening processes and management and negotiated a revised funding structure with its lenders.

Martins met Nigel Davies through various Insol Europe Eastern Europe conferences. Martins will support Wyn River’s clients with advice on funding and restructuring in Latvia and may be in a position to take on further advisory and executory mandates alongside his current start up CEO role.

Ieva Strunkiene, Wyn River associate, Lithuania

Ieva is an associate in a pan-Baltic law firm, based in Vilnius, covering migration, corporate and commercial, M&A, insolvency and debt recovery as well as dispute resolution. Prior to joining the law firm in 2015, she gained four years’ experience as a member of the legal team of a major regional bank, specialising in credit contracts, risk management and insolvent litigation. She is also an assistant to a member of parliament on legal matters. Before joining the bank, Ieva worked for four years as a lawyer in the Property Management and Economics department of the Ministry of Interior.

Ieva is Wyn River’s associate in Lithuania. Her network of contacts and working knowledge of local insolvency and restructuring process in Lithuania are valuable assets which she shares with Wyn River’s clients interested in both growth and stressed situations.

Ieva has a master’s degree in Law from Vilnius University and a Law and Business degree from Middlesex University. From 2015 Ieva became a PhD student (doctoral thesis: Legal aspects of natural persons’ insolvency) of Mykolas Romeris University. She has continued to participate in academic analysis of insolvency legislation in Lithuania, having written several articles on the subject for Insol Europe, who recognised her valuable contribution by awarding her the Richard Turton prize in 2011 for a paper on fraudulent bankruptcy. Ieva met Nigel Davies through Insol Europe.

In 2013, Ieva contributed the chapter on Lithuania for Insol Europe’s study into a new approach to bankruptcy and insolvency, which was commissioned by the European Commission. Nigel contributed the chapter on Croatia for the same EU study which supported the subsequent revision in the European Insolvency Regulations promoting business rescues and simplifying cross-border insolvencies, likely to take effect in May 2017.

David Lyth, Wyn River associate, Poland

David Lyth is a British project director, based in Poland, with extensive experience of infrastructure finance and structural reform projects across Central and Eastern Europe. He joined the Wyn River network as an associate in 2015 after completing a four year mandate as the lead Programme Director of the Serbian Municipal Infrastructure Support Programme (MISP). This EU funded initiative started in 2004, in which Nigel Davies participated as the inaugural lead financial expert to the engineering-led team.

David has directed and implemented complex international consultancy programmes and projects with a combined fee value of over €100 million, staffed by over 500 consultants. He has a hands-on approach to team leadership, and addresses the diverse institutional, technical and financial aspects of projects. David is an excellent communicator and relationship builder in both the private and public sectors and a creative business developer. He has extensive experience across Western, Eastern, Central and South-eastern Europe.

The key results of MISP in Serbia included 5 EU funded feasibility studies and financing plans for water/wastewater, waste and economic infrastructure projects with overall investment values of over €80 million, strengthening capacity of 500 national and local officials in project development and implementation plus the organisational and financial management improvement of one municipal and two regional wastewater companies, including revised tariff policies.

Prior to Serbia, David spent four years in Bulgaria (2007-2011) as Project Director of an EU project to strengthen institutional capacity at the Ministry of Environment, working on projects such as integrated solid waste for Sofia. David has also held project director roles on environmental management and solid waste in Lithuania and Malta. His career started with Northumbrian Water – Entec as sector director where he had lead responsibility for developing their international waste and energy business.

Adam Jedrzejewski, Wyn River associate, Poland

Adam Jedrzejewski is a Warsaw (Poland) based Associate of Wyn River Limited. His main speciality, which he is passionate about, is parking. Since 2011 he has been an independent entrepreneur and consultant in the field of parking organization, parking infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships. Before then he built a successful corporate career in international institutions such as the U.S. Bancorp’s Elavon Financial Services, the France's AXA Insurance and the AIG Pension Fund.

Adam is one of the very few advisors on the Polish market with an in-depth involvement with major PPP-type parking projects (i.e. in Warsaw and Gdansk) and well has having experience of the industry from an operator perspective while working for the largest European car park management company.

Adam is currently working for a number of small-to-large scale clients, both public and private sector, advising on parking projects and their commercial side in particular (i.e. concept, development, demand analysis, market sounding, revenue & cost forecasting).

Adam is also a well recognized individual in the field of Public-Private Partnerships with a track record of substantial achievements in this regard: through contributing to a number of international PPP conferences, delivering PPP trainings, conducting PPP studies for international clients, organizing PPP study tours (i.e. for Ukrainian officials for USAID), writing articles in the professional press in Poland and abroad (Germany, CIS).

Bartosz Marczuk, Wyn River associate, Poland

Bartosz Marczuk is a specialist restructuring manager of manufacturing businesses in the CEE country, currently in a full time role as CEO of Yawal S.A., a vertically integrated Group of aluminium processing companies quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. His role at Yawal is to increase sales of the architectural aluminium systems and develop new business lines.

Bartosz has 12 years of experience working with PE/VC funds and their portfolio companies on operational improvements in the CEE country, acting as a Board Member or interim manager. Before becoming a restructuring manager, he worked as a strategy and management consultant and corporate finance advisor for 9 years (privatizations, M&As). His career includes international projects in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Romania, Austria, UK and France.

Between 2009-2013, Bartosz was Group CFO of Kofola S.A. a soft beverages business listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange operating in four CEE countries, with annual revenues of EUR 350m, where he improved EBITDA by 30% between 2011-2013 and reduced leverage by 50%. He completed the first CZK denominated bonds issue in the Czech capital market by a Polish public entity.

In 2005-2006 Bartosz was Managing Director of AB Dvarcioniu keramika, the largest manufacturer of ceramic tiles in the Baltic States turning this company around. As well as a successfully refinancing the company, it also won the Lithuanian Product of the Year in 2006 for its new tiles collection.

Bartosz started his career in consulting with Price Waterhouse and Arthur Andersen, followed by CII Group (currently Alvarez & Marsal). He is a founder member of the Association of the Interim Managers of Poland, and received executive training at Kellogg School of Business. He is a Chartered Accountant (FCCA, 2002), has a M.Sc. in Financial Mathematics from Polytechnics of Wrocław (Poland), and won a Tempus scholarship at University of Paisley (Scotland).

Yury Ganus, Wyn River Associate, Russia

Yury is the managing director of an advisory firm based in St. Petersburg which offers corporate and project finance, as well as operational and corporate governance improvements to its clients. (www.tblab.ru and www.turnaround.su) Yury is therefore ideally placed as Wyn River’s associate for Russia.

Yury has been a member of The RUSSIAN NATIONAL INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION (IDA) since 2008, a professional organization uniting Russian and international corporate directors and experts in corporate governance. Yury has studied the Chartered Director programme at the UK’s Institute of Directors.

Yury originally trained as an electrical engineer but later studied both leasing and bankruptcy in subsequent university programmes in Russia, culminating in a dissertation on criminal intent to cause bankruptcy.

Yury has held several independent directorship positions since 2008 and currently chairs several boards including a publication, two technology companies, a machine building company and a regional industrial railway.

Since the mid 1990s Yury has held several commercial and general director positions in a variety of sectors including specific roles as a crisis manager.

Maxim Kopolovetz, Wyn River associate, Ukraine

Maxim is an executive manager with strong international and business transformation experience gained throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

He has more than 16 years of business experience, performing assignments in Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland and Ukraine. Maxim is a native speaker of Russian, Ukrainian and Polish and is fluent in English.

Maxim has a proven track record of managing and improving company profitability, overall operations, restructuring projects, business development, green field projects and the implementation of world class business processes, both for stable businesses and those in crisis.

Maxim spent much of his early career with Lafarge Cement in Poland, Ukraine and Russia and more recently has turned around cement company in Kazakhstan.

While Maxim has limited capacity to work on new projects currently, he is a valuable reference for Wyn River’s clients with heavy industry, mining and cement investments and operations or new plans for Ukraine, Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Tony Flynn, Wyn River associate, South Africa

Tony Flynn was born and educated in Cape Town before moving to England with his family. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Licenced Insolvency Practitioner with over 20 years’ experience of recovery, reorganisation and business review work on behalf of both corporate borrowers and lenders, with an emphasis on Asset Based Lending.

Tony has held senior positions in several professional services firms in the UK, including 19 years with Grant Thornton where he worked closely with Nigel Davies on several cross-border assignments. Tony returned to South Africa in 2013 to support the emerging corporate rescue culture that is growing alongside the existing liquidation process. He has already qualified as a Senior Business Rescue Practitioner in South Africa.

Tony is well positioned to support Wyn River’s clients with their Sub-Saharan restructuring and liquidity needs.

Jan Havel, Wyn River associate, Czech Republic

Jan started his career with 8 years at E&Y Czech Republic, where he became a senior manager within their Corporate Finance and Recovery department. His key clients included Skoda Power and various manufacturing and engineering companies. In 2000 he moved with his wife to the Netherlands where he worked with both Nigel Davies and Marvin Buddingh' to establish a new restructuring team for Deloitte. He moved back to the Czech Republic in 2002 and undertook a number of interim CEO and CFO roles including Jitona (furniture), Omega Optix (lense producer and distributor), Chairman of ERIKA (Premium SMS Parking and other applications), as well as Vice Chairman and later turnaround CEO to one of the Czech Republic's largest on-line and high street sport betting companies.

Jan is well placed to act as either advisor or interim executive for both growth and stressed businesses in the Czech Republic.

Len Judes, Wyn River associate, Cyprus and Israel

Len Judes is the Wyn River associate for both Cyprus and Israel.

Len is an international lawyer, member of the Israeli Bar and is a graduate of Manchester University. Len is a partner in the Cypriot law firm of Stelios Americanos & Co and is a Counsellor to a Tel Aviv business law firm. He specialises in international aspects of corporate and fiduciary law, tax efficient structures, real estate and property law. Len has been in practice for twenty years, during which time he was the Managing Partner of his own Firm in Israel for fifteen years and was a lecturer for several years at the Law Faculty of the Ono Academy College in Tel-Aviv.

Len is one of the founders and is the first and current Chairman of the Israel-Lithuania Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ILCCI), ever since its inception in 2009. He is also the promoter of the establishment of a sister bi national chamber of commerce in Lithuania, that is the Lithuania – Israel Chamber of Commerce. Len is also an Ambassador of the LPK (Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists) in Israel and also the promoter and founder of the Israel-Lithuania Technology Hub.

Previously, Len was Chairman of the Israel-British Chamber of Commerce between 2005 and 2010 and is a member of the Board (and Treasurer) of the Federation of Bi National Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Len was born in London in 1965, his family being from South African / Lithuanian origins. Within Wyn River, Len will support clients with Cyprus offshore funding issues as well as advising on new innovation technologies between Israel, Lithuania and the UK.

Michel van Overbeek, Wyn River associate, Netherlands

Michel holds an M.Sc in Food Technology from the renowned Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He then went on to represent several global food and agriculture brands, with responsibility for various functions, including cross-border sales and marketing, production, finance, R&D and logistics. His larger corporate roles were with Codrico (cereals), Gilde Private Equity (biotech and nutrition), CEO of the overseas division of Royal Nutricia (infant milk and clinical nutrition) and CEO of Royal Wessanen's Animal Feed Division.

Michel and Marvin Buddingh' have both been closely involved with several Baltic and Balkan M&A and restucturing assignements with Wyn River since early 2013.

Marvin Buddingh’, Wyn River associate, Netherlands

Marvin Buddingh’ started his career as a banker with Fortis in the Netherlands. He joined Deloitte Netherlands in 2000 and spent 2 years in their corporate finance department. Marvin then transferred to the new Restructuring Services team which Nigel Davies formed in 2002, where he also worked closely with Wyn River's Czech associate, Jan Havel.

Marvin later left Deloitte to form his own interim management and refinancing boutique firm, often working alongside Private Equity investors looking at both MBO and turnaround investment opportunities. He has been an independent adviser for over 10 years.

Marvin has worked on Eastern European clients and projects as interim CFO/COO of a food and feed processing company for three years and has also a significant track record of successful cross-border Western European, US and Asian transactions which he can share with future Wyn River clients. Some of the Eastern European countries he has worked in include Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Akin Rota, Wyn River associate, Turkey

Mr. Rota graduated from Industrial Engineering department of Middle East Technical University, Ankara with High honors. He received his M.S. degree from Stanford University, CA in 1982.

He spent six years in banking sector, starting in Citibank as head of fixed income securities desk, then as Vice president of Impexbank setting up and heading the Treasury and Capital Markets department. Later he assumed the position of Assistant General Manager of Finansbank in charge of the investment banking division. During that time he managed to place the largest portion of the largest private sector IPO of Turkey and led various privatization and recovery projects. In 1992 he formed a joint venture with a French company, specializing in industrial minerals, as shareholder and general manager. In 2002, together with his partners, he started up his own company producing industrial washing machines. He also worked as assistant general manager at Ozkan Demir Celik, a large steel manufacturer.

Mr Rota is currently a Partner at Arkan & Ergin, an independent Turkish accounting, tax and advisory firm, and supports Wyn River's clients across Turkey.

Lars Hagelmann, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Lars Hagelmann has returned to London to act as an adviser or interim executive on distressed investing opportunities. Until recently, he held the position as a Chief Investment Officer with an investment company in Oman. He is a senior investment professional with 15 years expertise in private equity, portfolio management, high yield and a background in M&A consultancy.

Lars has an extensive, well-established Middle Eastern and European network, having worked in both Dubai and Oman for 6 years managing the investment strategies of investment funds and family offices. Before moving to the Middle East, Lars worked with private equity firms in ondon for 5 years, where he gained an understanding of numerous industries. Using a holistic investment approach, Lars has implemented and streamlined reporting systems to ensure business plan targets are met as well as holding board positions of the portfolio entities to monitor the growth or turnaround of various investments across Europe and the Middle East.

While Wyn River does not target the Middle East directly as a market for our growth and distressed investing solutions, Lars has access to potential Middle Eastern investors and other High Net Worth individuals who want to deploy capital into the various opportunities we originate.

Denis Ryabchenko, Wyn River associate, Singapore

In 2013, Denis moved from Moscow to be the Director of Intelorg Pte Limited, a Singapore based advisory company. He is responsible for developing new business product lines for the Company involving international trade between Russia and South East Asia (SEA) countries.

Denis also oversees Intelorg's financial position and hedging operations for commodity contracts and leads negotiations on behalf of Russian clients with international companies within SEA to promote mutual business projects.

Denis was an audit assurance partner with Grant Thornton Russia for 10 years before moving back to Singapore, where he attended high school. Denis met Nigel Davies in Moscow during his assessment of the Russian restructuring market in 2009. In Russia, Denis was responsible for audit and assurance services of a large portfolio of clients, including financial institutions, manufacturing and retail sectors. Denis also led projects involving the public issue of cross-border EURObonds.

Denis established his own consultancy in 2001 to assist Russian companies and financial institutions in their transition to IFRS, and for the development of a Management Information System for the largest manufacturer of FMCG. Denis eventually merged his consultancy into Grant Thornton Russia where he became a partner.

Singapore is becoming an attractive market for Russian and other Central Asian companies looking to list on their local stock exchange. This also ties into the experience of Graham Duncan who has several years of Asian IPO and other capital market transactions.

While Wyn River does not target Singapore directly as a market for our growth and distressed investing solutions, Denis has access to potential Russian, Singaporean and other regional investors and High Net Worth individuals who want to deploy capital into various opportunities which Wyn River originates.

Stephen Stolliday, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Stephen is an investment professional and Chartered Accountant with 20+ years’ experience investing and divesting, primarily in companies across Emerging Markets.

His career started in audit before he transferred to a restructuring and insolvency role with PwC for 8 years where he worked on UK projects as well as engagements in Romania and South Africa.

Stephen then moved into Private Equity, initially leading workout situations in Asia for CDC for 7 years. His sector experience in that role included FMCG, Forestry, Agriculture, Food, Finance, Natural resources, and Real Estate.

He subsequently joined Actis Capital, based in London and Singapore, as a Portfolio Manager for US$50m Asian Distressed Debt Fund focused on investing in NPL portfolios and single credits of stressed/distressed assets including NPLs and real estate assets.

Between 2010 and 2014, Stephen held two senior Director roles in private equity funds based in Kazakhstan, firstly with Aureous Central Asia Managers Limited, a $70m fund for Central Asia, and then with CITIC-Kazyna, a $200m fund investing in Kazakhstan and China.

Stephen has recently returned to the UK with the majority of his time committed to a new challenge as a senior investment adviser to Finance Wales.

For Wyn River’s clients, Stephen will share his network of contacts across Central and wider Asia and advise growth and distressed investors on commercial risks and resolution strategies.

Dave Jennings, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Dave Jennings is a highly experienced turnaround director and interim executive, with specific experience of mining and Africa.

A South African Chartered Accountant and member of the UK’s Institute for Turnaround, Dave has broad commercial experience across several functions ranging from Finance and IT to Operations and General management. Dave’s principal sector expertise includes mining and mining services, regulated industries (including food, pharmaceuticals and hazardous materials), retail, distribution, IT, manufacturing, ready-mix concrete, clothing, services, heavy and specialist engineering, airline suppliers, crane rental, motor racing and outsourcing.

He was appointed Interim Divisional CFO in Johannesburg of a LSE and Johannesburg listed mining and steel-making company for 7 months. The division included iron ore mines in South Africa, a manganese mine JV and newly acquired Brazilian iron ore assets Dave then took over as Interim CFO of the Brazilian business for 9 months, He was subsequently appointed Interim CFO of their non-core steel-making business and commenced a turnaround and disposal programme until a permanent CFO was appointed almost two years later

Other senior positions held, often with cross-border aspects, include interim executive turnaround roles to family or PE owned and listed companies, often introduced by the company lenders to address liquidity concerns or by PE or family owners to run change management programmes.

He has an excellent history of developing businesses through profitable organic growth and/or acquisitions in UK, Europe, North America and Africa, using strong interpersonal leadership and cultural sensitivity.

Dave has deep experience of corporate finance transactions such as acquisitions, fund-raising (debt and equity) and disposals as well as a flotation on the London Stock Exchange. As with many of our Wyn River associates, Dave is available to act in executive, non-executive (Chairman/Director) or advisory roles.

Graham Duncan, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Graham Duncan is an experienced Corporate Financier who has advised on more than 40 Alternative Investment Market (AIM) transactions in the last 15 years. Graham has been an independent consultant for the past two years. Prior to that, he was the Director of the capital markets practice of Mazars UK, as well as the head of their mining team and European China Desk.

A Chartered Accountant (FCA), Graham has strong technical skills including IFRS and UK stock Exchange requirements, which he has used to support many small-mid cap clients in the UK and across several international exchanges, including South Africa and South East Asia (e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia). His transaction values have ranged from £ 2-100 million. Graham spent almost four years on secondment to Hong Kong in the mid 1990s to specialise in regional corporate finance work.

Graham supports Wyn River clients with fund raising advice, especially in the mining and natural resources sector. Graham co-authored UK Trade and Investment’s mining brochure which was published in June 2013.

Many Russian clients are now looking at Singapore as an alternative to London’s AIM market. Graham works with locally-based associate, Denis Ryabchenko, to provide tailored advice on that funding option.

Peter Whiting, Wyn River associate, United Kingdom

Peter has over 20 years of international professional experience predominantly in continental Europe, in strategy, marketing and territory management roles for Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola and The Foster’s Group, spending 5 years focused solely on Eastern Europe within UK private equity and then running his own European focused financial advisory business.

From 1991 to 2000 Peter held a number of roles at Cadbury Schweppes, starting in European and global strategy and brand management and living and working in France, Germany and the USA. He was later regional marketing manager for much of Central and Eastern Europe, with a focus on Russia and held country management roles in the country too. He also worked in Africa for a short period.

In 2000 Peter moved to The Foster’s Group as commercial head of Europe and grew the European business by 70% over 5 years, launching Foster’s in France, Russia, Finland, Portugal, and Switzerland. During this period he completed an Executive MBA at London Business School. In 2005, Peter joined K2 Partners, to set up a small distressed private equity business in the UK. In three years he sourced and assessed several deals, completing two and rescuing one food equipment design and manufacturing business for a substantial equity share.

In 2008 Peter set up Clean Capital, a corporate finance boutique where he raised a total of £6m+ for 6 mostly post revenue businesses in continental Europe. He sold a Eur10m turnover Irish waste operator and also supported the turnaround of a £10m turnover food import and distribution business.

Within Wyn River Peter concentrates on strategy development, business development and marketing projects as well as corporate finance be it fundraising or restructuring for all types of business. Currently Peter is advising on fund raising for an international consumer healthcare brand, strategy and fundraising for a UK high tech smart material business and sales, marketing and distribution strategy for a funded global telecoms start-up.

Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2014

Affiliated Firms

Wyn River cooperates with a select number of advisory boutiques that already offer tailored solutions to clients which are consistent with our own target market. Several of our affiliated firms have their own personnel based in neighbouring countries.

You can read about some of the leaders from our affiliated firms below:

Michael Glazer, Director, SEE Regional Advisory d.o.o, Croatia

Mr. Glazer has over 20 years of experience as an investment banker in Southeastern Europe. He is a Director and an owner of SEE Regional Advisors, an investment banking and advisory firm operating throughout Southeastern Europe. SEE Advisors focuses on obtaining finance for companies in Southeastern Europe, in assisting local and foreign companies expand their markets within and beyond that country and in aiding troubled companies, their owners and creditors. Prior to the formation of SEE Advisors, Mr. Glazer established Auctor Securities, Croatia’s leading independent securities firm (his interest in which Mr. Glazer sold in 2006).

Before coming to Southeastern Europe, Mr. Glazer specialized in international structured finance transactions and sovereign and sub-sovereign obligations at Financial Security Assurance, Inc., the monoline bond insurer. He began his Wall Street career at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he focused on sovereign restructurings, derivatives, and cross-border financings. He is Founding President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia, the first AmCham in ex-Yugoslavia and current Vice President-Sponsorship of the Croatian Turnaround Management Association. Mr. Glazer is a graduate of The Yale Law School (JD), Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Masters in Public Affairs) and the University of New Hampshire (B.S. Physics). He is a native speaker of English and is proficient in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian and French. Mr. Glazer also has a working knowledge of Spanish, Macedonian and Slovenian and speaks basic German.

Michael Glazer and his colleagues in SEE Regional Advisors support Wyn River with origination and delivery efforts in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Slovenia.

Mr. Kenneth Lefkowitz is an investment banker with rich transaction experience including privatization/M&A advisory, asset management, real estate development, licensing tenders, and private placements, with completed transaction volume in Bulgaria in excess of EUR 210 million. He joined EPIC Bulgaria (now NECA) in 1997, having previously managed a boutique investment research firm. From 2000 to 2003 he served as Director of Nadejda Privatization Fund. Mr. Lefkowitz also served on the Board of Directors of cosmetics leader Alen Mak. He is a past president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria. Currently, Mr. Lefkowitz serves on the Advisory boards of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA), and the Institute for Market Economics, the first and oldest independent economic policy think tank in Bulgaria.

Mr. Kenneth Lefkowitz is the managing partner of New Europe Corporate Advisory Ltd. (NECA), a Sofia-based corporate finance and consulting boutique. NECA offers a wide range of advisory services, including M&A, privatization, finance-raising, balance-sheet restructuring, and licensing tenders. In close co-operation with network partners partners, NECA covers all of southeast Europe, with priority focus on Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo. NECA and Wyn River are affiliated companies and cooperate on a daily basis. This cooperation is seamless for our clients.

Radoslav holds a BA in business administration from the University of Sofia, and is currently progressing towards an MBA from Warwick Business School. He also holds a Diploma in Financial Management from ACCA as well as a list of short qualifications in the areas of tariff modelling and asset management. Radoslav speaks fluent English and some German.

Most of Radoslav’s background is in water and includes three distinct career stages. Nine years at Sofiyska voda (Sofia water company – 1.3 million population served, EUR 70 million turnover) including expert and managerial positions in the areas of customer service, network management, metering, business and investment planning, non-regulated services and concession compliance. One year as an interim general manager of a state-owned regional water operator (200 000 population served, EUR 10 million turnover). An ongoing advisory career in the area of water and environment within New Europe Corporate Advisory (NECA), focused on financial, commercial, regulatory and planning areas, geographic coverage being South East Europe.

Rado has recently completed his mandate as Deputy Minister of Regional Development in the interim government of the Republic of Bulgaria, a position he held between August and November 2014. Rado continues to provide advice to the Ministry on water related matters.

Genc commenced his career in the Netherlands where he worked on internal and external auditing engagements for five years before returning to his native Kosovo. Genc is a certified Dutch public auditor and has a Masters degree from the University of Nyenrode, where he is also a Ph D candidate in Business.

Genc was a manager with Deloitte Central Europe’s financial advisory team in Kosovo for three years before joining Grant Thornton to establish and drive their new office in Kosovo in 2007. He held a Non-Executive Director role at a Kosovo mining company prior to its IPO on the Toronto stock Exchange. In 2008 was appointed head of internal audit for Post and Telecommunications Kosovo, a position he held for four years. He then worked as a part time consultant to a local law firm and to the Business Plan Selection Committee of the USAID Young Enterpreneurs Programme.

In 2013 he joined NECA as part of the leadership team to expand their transaction and advisory projects into Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo.

Gigi Mikabadze, Partner, AG International Consulting, Georgia

Gigi began his audit career at PKF, where he worked as senior auditor. Earlier he worked in Procredit Bank and Bank of Georgia in leading positions in their credit departments, which included the valuation of different businesses. He was nominated as the “Young Businessman of the Year” in 2011 year by the Ministry of Economics of Adjara Autonomous Republic. He also qualified from training programmes in Malaysia and Denmark and now has around 10 years of accounting experience.

AG International Consulting was formed in 2007 by a group of professionals focused on providing their clients with quality professional services in an independent, objective, and ethical manner. They have earned the trust and confidence of their clients by implementing a number of professional development initiatives and quality and compliance safeguards.

In addition to his leadership role in AG Consulting, Gigi is managing partner of the Georgian agriculture company Eco Farm. Eco Farm cooperates with around 200 local farmers with good skills and reputation in the agriculture sector, which connects closley with the priority focus set by Wyn River.

AG International Consulting provides a range of services, including accounting, auditing, tax reporting, business plan evaluations, other financial operations, as well as consulting, legal services, advertising, and software design. Its team includes professional auditors, bankers, consultants and other business specialists. AG International Consulting is engaged in projects across Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia often working collaboratively with international companies such as CABC (Central Asia Business Consultants), FMG (Financial Management Group, member of HLB International), TMC (Member of Geneva Group), J.B.Audit (Member of LEA Global), and Wyn River Limited.

Leonidas Tossidis, Director, ELT Consulting, Cyprus

Leonidas is a Wyn River associate, based in Cyprus, with extensive experience of Greece and wider South East European markets.

Leonidas is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 30 years of cumulative experience gained both in consulting and managerial positions. He has supported businesses with diverse operations by utilising his strategic planning, decision-making, communication and leadership abilities. He has a proven track record of success in designing business development plans, leading the development of new products, sales channels and other new business initiatives. Leonidas has also supported clients with financial improvements including liquidity management, vendor management, corporate governance improvements, cost reduction, preparation for sales or mergers and restatements and/or reconstruction of financial records.

Leonidas has recently accepted an appointment to lead a major retail group in Cyprus. This restricts his capacity to work on new projects directly, but he can still offer his advice and extensive network of contacts to Wyn River’s clients.

In 2014 and 2015, Leonidas was a Management Consultancy Director with Kantor Group of Greece, which is a Wyn River affiliated firm. Prior to working with Kantor, Leonidas held several senior positions in consultancies and as CEO & CFO of corporations in Greece. His sector experience includes rail privatisation, food and agribusiness, water utilities and waste management PPPs, textile manufacturing and retail. Leonidas has written several though leadership pieces on retail which you can read on his own website.

Leonidas has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business as well as B. Sc in Economics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Konstantinos Kappos, Director, Kantor Management Consulting, Greece

Konstantinos is a Director and head of management consulting services at Kantor Management Consulting which is an affiliated firm to Wyn River. He rejoined Kantor in 2014 having previously led its Corporate Client Business Unit in the 1990s.

He has over 30 years’ experience working as a senior executive within large corporations, as well as leading consulting assignments and his own commercial ventures.

He has previously held board positions, including Chief Information Officer and Chief Transformation Officer roles with OTE S.A, the leading telecommunications company in South East Europe, part of Deutsche Telekom. During his 10 years with OTE, he designed and led several operational improvement, HR and IT governance programmes as well as contributing at board level to the company’s successful privatisation and transition from a state-owned monopoly to a competitive, customer-orientated, international corporate.

Konstantinos also ran his own consultancy for several years including starting up his own food retail business in Germany, and advising on strategy and business planning for IT, retail, food & beverage and renewable energy clients. Konstantinos started his career as with what is now T-Systems in Germany, specialising in IT solution sales and application customization. He holds an M.SC in Business Engineering from the Munich Technical University and a B.SC in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens.

Andres Mandel, Founding Partner, Sentio OÜ, Estonia

Andres is the founding and managing partner of Sentio Corporate Finance in Estonia, which is an affiliated firm to Wyn River. Andres has solid experience in searching, managing and exiting investments, corporate finance, advisory and different industry experience in the Baltic and Nordic regions.

Andres is responsible for the overall company performance and execution of advisory assignments. He focuses on assisting clients with exits, strategic advisory services, preparing valuations, acquisitions and mergers, as well as various financing arrangements. Andres has lead and completed projects from the following sectors: metal processing (AS Temeko), wooden housing (AS Ritsu), furniture production (OÜ Interior LUX), architectural company (OÜ Novel), agriculture, real estate (commercial), etc.

Andres formed Sentio in 2003. Before that he had 11-years of experience with Baltics Small Equity Fund (BSEF). BSEF, operated during 1997-2008, was a private equity fund making equity investments into companies located in the Baltic States. With BSEF, Andres was involved in investment identification and closing, monitoring and exits.

Prior to joining BSEF, Andres worked in various management and marketing positions in the food production, pharmaceutical distribution and printing industries.

Andres holds a M.A. (magister atrium) Degree in Economics from the University of Tartu, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (2001). Prior to this, he graduated Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Graduate Certificate in Business Administration (1995).

Andres is a member of the advisory board for technology investments into manufacturing companies at Enterprise Estonia.

Ben Geels, Partner, Osprey Partners, Romania

Ben has worked in finance and banking for over 30 years and specialises in corporate debt, restructuring of companies post acquisition and turnaround management.

Ben has worked in the Caribbean, France, the UK, Japan (where he took over the failed Barings Securities operations and restructured them), North & South Korea, Philippines and Indonesia, Russia (Europe and Far East), Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania. He brings a huge depth of international experience and multicultural understanding. His time in Russia in 1998 was spent as part of the post Russian debt default restructuring team at ING’s Moscow subsidiary.

Ben was COO for all ING Group entities in Romania and CEO of ING Bank Retail in Romania before spending four years as a freelance consultant focusing on cost efficiencies, turnarounds and start-ups. He joined Osprey Partners in 2011 to lead M&A and finance raising mandates.

Ben has extensive experience with turnaround, start-up and restructuring worldwide and is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, Romania chapter.

Didier Lepoutre, Partner, Osprey Partners, Romania

Didier has been a partner in Osprey Partners since 2012, where he has led several M&A, fundraising and business improvement mandates.

Didier’s career started in custodial services with an investment bank in Brussels. After completing his MBA at Cornell University, he joined Chase Manhattan, based both in New York and London. He then worked for several years for both BZW and Bear Sterns in London offering innovative financial products for clients across Europe.

In 2003 Didier settled in Romania where he acted as an independent consultant with a focus on M&A, business restructuring advice and start-ups. He worked on two pharmaceutical company restructurings, as well as supporting large private equity funds with acquisitions both in and outside Romania.

Didier consulted the largest non-state owned railway operator in Romania, a group of 6 companies, and prepared it for sale. The work included the consolidation and restatement of financial information, cost analysis, valuation, transaction structuring and the divestment of both non-core businesses and assets.

Didier works together with Ben Geels at Osprey Partners and supports Wyn River’s clients in Romania with market entry, funding and turnaround support.

Vladimir Kartavtsev, CEO, Extra Consulting, Ukraine

Vladimir established Extra Consulting in Ukraine in 2000. The mission of Extra Consulting is to advise Ukrainian and other CIS banks on the world best practice of management and advanced information technologies to improve their efficiency. This is achieved through the combined expertise of a network of international and local consultants.

He is a member and co-director of the Ukraine chapter of the Global Association of Risk Professionals. Vladimir has an MBA in Banking and a diploma in mathematics from the Kiev State University. He has 20 years of banking and financial sector consulting experience under EU, EBRD and USAID projects executed by leading European and US consulting firms. These Technical Assistance projects have given Vladimir a deep understanding of world best practice in Corporate Governance and Risk Management, bank supervision and Non-Performing Loan Resolution. Vladimir has led projects to implement Risk Management Improvement projects across financial institutions in Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia and has an ongoing project with the Central Bank in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Extra Consulting organises risk training for banking professionals in Ukraine and across other parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia often including gap analysis between national legislation and EU standards. As a result he is very well connected with most of the international and domestic banking groups active across the country, as well as several prominent international bankers who he works with to deliver world class specialist training modules on credit, market and operational risks, organisational change, Basel II and other key issues for the financial industry.

Given the difficult financial and geo-political situation in the country at present, the international authorities such as local Central Banks and the IMF, are seeking ways to stabilise the banking systems to manage currency mismatches, pending sovereign debt repayments, increasing Non Performing Loan levels and nervousness in the local depositor client base.

Vladimir’s wider network of contacts in Ukraine and neighbouring countries can be called upon to support other corporate and project finance activity in the country for Wyn River’s clients.

Lilla Stricca, Managing Partner, CCSG, Hungary

Lilla is managing partner of the Complex Corporate Solutions Group in Hungary. CCSG is a boutique business advisory firm, established in 2010, which is active in the field of tax driven business operations advisory, foreign direct investment structuring, business administration services, as well as interim and crisis management.

Lilla is a professional registered Hungarian auditor and chose to specialise in tax soon after qualifying. During her career she became managing director of RSM Haarman Hemmerath's audit and tax departments in Hungary, when Nigel Davies was acting as coordinator of RSM's European restructuring offering. Since 2010, Lilla has been leading multidisciplinary professional services for her clients’ Hungarian capital and operational investments and /or their establised Hungarian operations, including interim management solutions. Her clients include MNCs, financial institutions, and leading international professional firms.

Kim is a partner in Green Evolution Capital, a UK-based investment manager, principal investor and project developer focussing on solar and wind projects across Europe. GEC is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK (FCA). Kim now has over 20 years of experience in energy, renewables, project & corporate finance and private equity.

Prior to Green Evolution Capital, Kim spent 3 years with HSH Nordbank (Hamburg), running the bank’s solar and wind energy business. As such, he focussed on working with project developers, utilities, IPPs , financial investors and manufacturers on financing and structuring large, utility-scale projects across Europe and North America.

Kim’s main projects include a portfolio of solar PV parks in Spain (TIC > €250 million), numerous solar PV projects in Germany, France, and Italy, the then largest wind farm portfolio in Poland (150 MW), the largest wind farm development in Croatia (42 MW), and several Offshore wind developments. In addition, Kim invested into an wind development project in Croatia (120 MW), via his own investment vehicle Emergy Capital Ltd.

Prior to HSH Nordbank, Kim spent 4 years with Merrill Lynch, 4 years with CIBC World Markets, 3 years with Deutsche Bank and 3 years with Paribas, mostly in private equity and corporate and leveraged finance.

Kim holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering and Waste Management from Berlin’s Technical University and a BA from Paris Business School, ESCP.

Waltraud Sedounik, Director, Kairos Consulting, United Kingdom

Director Waltraud Sedounik, a London based Austrian national, is a graduate of Harvard University and has a Ph. D from Karl Franzens University. She brings more than 20 years’ experience of strategic and implementation leadership, delivering global change and transformation initiatives – encompassing work in business strategy and technology implementation, operational transformation and M&A integration. She has deployed these skills across a range of financial service, automotive and retail businesses and large-cap organizations on global initiatives. She has worked with clients across Europe, Middle East, USA, Africa and Asia. While working at Grant Thornton in the UK. she project managed strategic change implementation in several financial and operational turnaround projects. Waltraud is a Certified Prince 2 Practitioner and speaks English and German fluently. She has a deep understanding of cross-cultural leadership, technology and management effectiveness issues.

Herbert has over 30 years of management, consulting and investing experience as a CEO, manager and politician in various roles. Paierl Consulting (PCB) is an affiliated firm to Wyn River which brings us excellent links to Austrian banks, law firms and Austrian companies active across Eastern Europe.

Herbert began his career as the chief of staff for the Styrian governor Josef Krainer. He then went on to the Styrian hydropower and electric company STEWEAG where he was the CEO. From 1996 to 2004 he was the Styrian Minister of Economy, Finance and Europe where he was responsible for the state budget of EUR 4bn. As minister Herbert developed and implemented the ‘Auto Cluster Styria’ which created 25,000 new jobs in the province and created competence centers, international business networks and cooperation agreements. His next step was as a manager of emerging markets at Cosma International (part of Magna International) followed by the role of CEO at the Austrian private equity fund, UIAG from 2007 to 2009. In 2009 he went back to Cosma lnternational as executive vice-president for Cosma Europe until he finally left to focus on PCB GmbH fulltime in 2012.

As well as PCB’s extensive network of senior contacts in Austria, Herbert’s experience of municipal finance, private equity, hydro power and automotive services is highly relevant for Wyn River’s clients.

Clive Gallagher, Director, CAAG Consulting Limited, United Kingdom

Clive has a career in banking spanning over 30 years predominantly in Restructuring and Commercial Credit covering UK, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

He worked for Barclays Bank for 31 years, spending time living in the UK, South Africa and Zambia and held a number of senior positions including being the Head of International Business Support & Recoveries responsible for teams in 20 countries and as Chief Risk Officer in Zambia. Clive was a voting member of the Barclays Group Credit Committee.

Clive has significant experience in dealing with difficult and complex situations and has extensive experience of building high performing teams in multiple jurisdictions.

Clive set up his own consultancy practice in 2014 and has been involved in advising a number of businesses in relation to strategy, debt restructuring and recovery. He cooperates with Wyn River primarily in Africa and Europe.

Maarten Susan, Regional Director, Financial Access, Kenya and Uganda

Maarten Susan is the Regional Director, East Africa for Financial Access, based in Nairobi. Financial Access is an affiliated firm to Wyn River, who share a commitment to the food an agribusiness, infrastructure and energy sectors.

Maarten manages the Kenya office, oversees business development for East Africa and leads their Agri-finance and Rural Banking programmes known as finance for agriculture (f4a) in Kenya and Uganda (www.f4a.co.ke). In addition he serves as Managing Director of Financial Access’s Supply Chain Finance company called eBiashara Africa Limited (ebiashara.com).

Mr. Susan has close to 30 years of financial sector experience. He started his career with ABN AMRO Bank in the early 1980s and worked for the bank in various commercial banking roles throughout Asia Pacific, North and South America as well as Europe. In 1999 he was appointed as Executive Director of Aviva’s banking operations in Continental Europe, followed by a 5 year term as a CEO of ReMark International, a global leader in B2B direct marketing insurance solutions.

In 2008 Mr. Susan joined Rabobank as CEO of Banco Terra in Mozambique, and later moved to Malawi to coordinate and execute an IFC-sponsored MSME Programme for First Merchant Bank. In his capacity of Programme Director, he was one of the architects behind the successful design and roll-out of FMB Bank’s successful retail banking franchise in Malawi.

Mr. Susan’s knowledge of the African banking market, which is available to Wyn River’s clients, is profound. He serves on several Boards, and has been a founding Director of the EUR 20 million Annona Sustainable Investment Fund. He studied at both Nijenrode Business University in the Netherlands and the London School of Economics.

Maya Boumedine

Maya is country manager for TVET UK in Algeria, a leading education trade association, which is an affiliated firm to Wyn River.

Maya supports TVET UK locally with educational partnerships between UK based colleges, universities and equipment suppliers and the Ministries of Education, Health and Tourism in Algeria. Sectors of particular interest include the role of UK and other agribusiness and sustainable energy companies to partner with local businesses and municipalities both through joint ventures, trade agreements and public private partnerships.

Maya has worked in several trade and embassy positions in the past focused on trade facilitation. She is also currently the Country Manager for the Algerian British Business Council. Maya holds a degree in Communication and Public Relations from the University of Algiers and is fluent in English, Arabic and French.

Benjamin Godwin

Benjamin Godwin is a is a consultant active in a wide range of sectors including trade and investment, public policy, due diligence and professional development training. He is the owner and founder of Export Tree, an export consultancy which serves European exporters operating in the former Soviet Union. He represents a range of companies in sectors as diverse as oil and gas, international recruitment and telecommunications. He also oversees the Export Tree database, a subscription service which provides market data across Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

He provides public policy and due diligence services via his firm Godwin Advisory. Godwin Advisory works with a range of private and public organisations, offering strategic and operations advice as well as due diligence services. His clients have included Tony Blair Associates, Portland Communications and a number of financial institutions.

Benjamin holds a first class masters degree from the University of Bristol in International Development Studies and wrote his dissertation on civil and economic development in Central Asia from 1991. He is an accredited Prince2 Practitioner. He is fluent in Russian.

Ben is the Wyn River associate for Kazakhstan and supports our clients for trade and investment activity in Central Asia. You can follow Ben on twitter @bgodwin111.

William Infante

William Infante is the President of Breakthrough Communications, an Ulaanbaatar-based affiliated firm of Wyn River. Breakthrough Communications specialises in strategic communications, public and government relations. The company provides insightful GR and creative PR and marketing communications that position companies, and build corporate and product image and identity.

Breakthrough has delivered government & public relations advice, and corporate communications support to local and global companies in mining, energy, telecommunications and financial services.

After two decades with the U.S. Dept. of State, heading USAID offices in Eastern Europe and Asia, and a stint as UN Ambassador to Serbia, William returned to the private sector, joining Breakthrough Communications in 2013 as an executive and operating capacity.

William is a seasoned executive, economist and policy advisor with several decades experience living and working in challenging countries across Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. Merchant banking and funds management experience laid the foundation for work that has advanced development and market-oriented reforms on four continents.

He has led multi-year business and development strategies that have influenced foreign, economic, social, natural resources, and environmental policies. Audience and partners have included senior-most decision-makers as well as working-level stakeholders in the private and public spheres, in government, multi-lateral institutions and in non-governmental and community organizations.

Immediately before moving overseas in 1992, he studied at the University of Michigan from which he received masters’ degrees in economics and in environmental policy. His Bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont is also in economics.

Dr Wura Abiola

Dr Wura Abiola is Managing Partner of Management Transformation, an Africa-focused strategic management consulting firm based in Nigeria which she founded in 1999. Management Transformation Limited is an affiliated firm with Wyn River.

Management Transformation has a long established track record in the service of public and private sector clients in Nigeria, including financial services, transportation, food and energy sectors. MT offers strategy, organisational change, process improvements, IT and human capital development including training. Supply chain finance and work flow performance enhancements are also being sought by corporate clients of MT in the region.

Wura started her career with McKinsey & Co both in New York and in London where she worked primarily in the areas of Strategy and Organisation. She is recognised as an expert on the topic of leadership and organisational behaviour in Africa. She has written articles on the Nigerian Power Crisis and co-wrote the much referenced article “Food for Africa”.

Wyn River provides Management Transformation’s clients with sector-led expertise, either as advisors or interim executives, and access to both growth funding and turnaround expertise to reverse underperformance across industries including food and agribusiness, mining, water and waste, and energy.

Wura has a B.Sc. in Accounting from the University of San Francisco and both an MBA and Ph.D. from Imperial College in London. She holds a diploma in Environmental Risk Assessment and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also a Senior Lecturer (Adjunct), Organisational Development, at the University of Lagos.

Chanita Saicheua

Chanita Saicheua is in charge of the Bangkok office of Financial Access, which is an affiliated firm with Wyn River. Although Wyn River focuses on Central Asia rather than the whole of Asia, we have occasional projects in and investors from Thailand.

Chanita is a Banking Strategy expert, specialised in the area of Credit Risk Management. Ms. Saicheua has worked in financial services for more than 25 years, including 12 years in business consulting to financial institution clients in the region, and 14 years combined experience as a Corporate and Investment Banker. From 1987-2000 she was a Corporate/Wholesale Banking Officer covering a diverse portfolio of clients from large multinational and local Thai Conglomerates to providing structured lending to commodity traders at Deutsche Bank, Indosuez (now Credit Agricole) and worked as an Investment Banker and restructuring expert at ING Barings/ING Bank.

From 2000-2007 Ms. Saicheua was a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Thailand, where she led the Financial Services Advisory practice. From 2007-2011 she joined IBM as a Partner of the Global Business Consulting Services practice and Head of Financial Services ASEAN. In her years at PwC and IBM Ms. Saicheua led a number of projects relating to bank risk, credit risk and Basel II, from policy/ process design/enhancement to risk system/data base design. She launched the Thai subsidiary of Financial Access in 2012.

Nathan Goode

A partner at Grant Thornton UK for 13 years, Nathan has worked with public and private sector organisations, providing consulting, transaction and fundraising advice for social, environmental and economic infrastructure. Latterly, Nathan was the global lead for Grant Thornton's international Energy & Cleantech sector group and authored an influential report on “Sustainable Cities”.

He established Grant Thornton UK’s renewables advisory team over 12 years ago, initially focusing on the onshore wind sector and later covering energy efficiency and energy from waste. Nathan has supported clients such as the Scottish Government, the Scottish Cities Alliance, the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change, UK Green Investment Bank, Ofgem and the Carbon Trust as well as many municipalities, sponsors and lenders.

An investment banker earlier in his career, Nathan also has extensive transactional advisory experience with a range of private sector business, including energy developers, utilities and construction / FM companies.

Nathan also has nearly 20 years' experience advising fundraising and project delivery for a broad range of PPPs and other public / private infrastructure projects in education, health, digital and IT. He is currently advising on major procurement programmes for 3 hospitals in Qatar.

Collective Experience

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Annual Meeting 2011, Astana, Kazakhstan

In the “Team and Spirit” section we set out brief profiles of several of the Wyn River associates and key members from some of our affiliated firms. Many of us have worked on projects together in the past, some of them dating back to the mid 1990s when new privatisation and austerity programmes were being designed and implemented

Some of the main Eastern European projects of Nigel Davies and other associates prior to the formation of the Wyn River network in 2013 are shown below with links where possible. We have several ongoing mandates which cannot be disclosed currently due to sensitivity. Dates are included as well as initials from the team showing which of our associates worked together in the past to deliver a successful outcome:

2013 Contributed the inputs on Croatia and Lithuania on behalf of Insol Europe for an EU Study into a revised approach to business failure and insolvency (ND/MG and IS)

2013 Introduced by an international bank, Wyn River provided an industry expert and a turnaround expert to design and support the implementation of a strategic operational and financial improvement programme at a major food processing buiness in South East Europe (ND, FS & WE)

2013 Sourced a Serbian real estate expert to provide rapid assessments on a local project development and valuation for an oversees insolvency firm (ND and MK)

2013 Sourced an industry expert to carry out commercial due diligence for an International Financial Institution in Russia on an equity investment in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector (ND)

2013 Advisory mandate in Western Europe to support an alternative investor’s purchase of discounted liabilities in a stressed real estate company (ND and MB)

In addition to our project history, Wyn River associates are active leaders and participants at conferences and debates in the areas of cross-border investment, restructuring and project finance. You can read more in our Blog & In the News section.